Nelson residents concerned over town road conditions

Nelson  The Nelson Town Board meeting last Thursday was almost a quick and simple affair with only basic town business and councilor reports being discussed — until it turned into a rather lengthy and at times heated discussion of the state of repair — or disrepair — of some of the town’s roads.

Town Highway Superintendent Jack Sevier started the meeting by declaring “winter officially over” because his department had removed the snow plows on all the town trucks. He said the highway department made 140 total plow runs during the winter, and garnered $52,527 for the town for all the plowing of county roads done by town employees under the town-county winter plowing contract.

Sevier said the town now has four total trucks in the highway department, after the recent sale of the town’s former fifth truck that was unrepairable. Of the four existing trucks, only two are currently operational and the other two are getting repaired, he said.

Sevier said he and the board have created and reviewed a list of the town roads that need to be repaired in 2014, and they also took a road trip recently to survey all the roads on the list. “We’re aware of road conditions; we’re working on fixes but it takes time and resources, and ours are limited,” he said.

Town Supervisor Roger Bradstreet read aloud a piece of correspondence the board recently received from residents of Chaphe Hill Road, who declared that their road is in such bad shape that it is dangerous, that it is full of washouts and potholes and that the town should be working to repair it but is not taking any action. The letter also said last year’s repaving of Stearns Road was a waste of money and the town’s resources would have been better used on other roads in more dire need of upgrades, such as Chaphe Hill.